So I'm on the Metro, on Breda 3040. I got on at Mt. Vernon Square, and rode all the way to Huntington. Most people board the Yellow Line at Gallery Pl-Chinatown or L'Enfant Plaza. Those who want seats board at the former. This guy got on at Gallery Place and sat in the seat in front of me. He was a middle-aged white guy, and appeared to be coming home from work.

Why is this notable? He started singing on the train. He's sitting there, and he's got his MP3 player with headphones, and he's singing to himself, somewhat loudly. It wouldn't be that bad in and of itself, but this guy could not sing to save his life. He was oblivious to the fact that everyone around him was making fun of him. I took the additional step of pulling out Big Mavica and recording him. I'll put that up when I get home. He sang a bunch of different songs. Two that I knew were Age of Aquarius and Puff, the Magic Dragon. He was awful. He couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. The other people on the train wondered if he was not exactly all together. I suggested that he probably just didn't care, or that he thought he sounded good.

And he sang all the way to Huntington, and kept on going as he walked down the platform towards the north mezzanine.

At Huntington, I turned around and doubled back to King Street, to visit my friend Tristan. I showed Tristan the clips. Tristan agreed - he was awful. Tristan wondered if he'd been puffing on the magic dragon, i.e. if he was on something.

We certainly covered some distance while he was singing. In my recordings, you can hear him going as we cleared the Braddock Road tunnel, Braddock Road station, King Street station, and Eisenhower Avenue. You can hear station announcements, Randi Miller chimes, ands Breda rehab motors in the background.

It reminds me of what Bill Cosby once said about the New York Subway. They not only get you where you're going, but they also go out of their way to entertain you - they put a nut on every car. This guy was the nut on Breda 3040. And he was certainly amusing...

As promised, I have posted the videos of the man singing on the Metro to YouTube. And here you are:


Singing "Age of Aquarius"


Singing "Puff the Magic Dragon"

The images itself are somewhat unimportant, unless you like looking at my shoes. This is because I was filming in such a way so that I got the mic on the camera as close as possible to the guy to get a good sound, and I think I did that. And as a result, the lens was pointed at the floor.

So there you go. He was certainly off in his own little world as we rode through the world of the Yellow Line.

For the second time, Katie and I went over the mountain to Charlottesville, and we had a blast. I picked her up at her place, and we went over. I had Big Mavica and the Lappy in tow.

We went to the Downtown Mall, parked on the top level of the Market Street garage, and walked from the parking garage to the Charlottesville Ice Park and back. On the way, we stopped in at Five Guys for a restroom break and a soda (and where they don't validate parking!), and at this little coffee shop near the Ice Park end for a steamer. Then going back, we stopped over at the free speech wall and photographed the messages, and added some of our own. The free speech wall is so fun, both to read and to contribute to. It's also so Charlottesville, as in it's something that is just so fitting for Charlottesville.

And we got lots of photos, too.


Katie took a moment to pose for a long-exposure photo on some planters.


A drawing marked as being "to you", "from me".


A message urging people to boycott Cha-Cha's, a business near the center of the Downtown Mall. I added the message "Why?" in pink chalk. I wonder what the person has against Cha-Cha's…


"Blackout makeout"? Okaaaaaaaay...


"City Council: Is there room for buses in our new bus station? I only see room for two lanes of traffic on Water Street." Does anyone know any more about this issue?


Okay, we just thought this was neat-looking.


And of course, I got a photo of Katie doodling on the wall. It was quite cold on this particular evening, and so Katie's got her other arm tucked way back into her sleeve.

And then after we finished downtown, we went to IHOP for dinner. I took the Lappy in with us, and we reviewed our take from the evening. We both agreed that it turned out really well. I'm also pleased to have the Lappy. Today proved it was a wise investment, as I'm now able to move my Web studio to just about anywhere with a wireless connection, plus now I can review my photos in high-resolution on the go.

I still can't get over that the Five Guys people don't validate parking. When they said that, I suggested to Katie, in a way that made sure that they could hear it, "Why don't we go somewhere else that does validate parking?" Who knows. Then meanwhile, Five Guys had signage regarding the peanuts they have in their restaurant that warns patrons not to take the peanuts or shells out of the restaurant. And I quote: "Due to the possibility of severe allergic reaction in some neighborhood children, please DO NOT take peanuts or peanut shells outside of Five Guys. The emphasis shown is theirs (see for yourself). I'd think that if that's what you're trying to prevent, then they've got it backwards. They should warn people coming in that peanuts are prevalent, rather than warning patrons not to take the peanuts out. After all, in the outside world where the "neighborhood children" can be found, people also drive cars that spew exhaust, and people likely also smoke cigarettes. By Five Guys' logic, we should only run our cars indoors as well. I don't even want to know how they'd apply their logic to people smoking cigarettes. I should note, though, that their restaurants are smoke-free. So, yeah, I found that one to be quite odd. Peanut allergies are no laughing matter, I will agree, but that sign is just ridiculous.

And as is usually the case with my trips with Katie, the Sable ratted Katie out for not buckling up. It detected her presence in the passenger seat, and when it detected that she was not wearing her seat belt when the car was in motion, it set off its seat belt alarm. I just turned and gave a friendly little reminder to buckle up, and Katie did so, but not without complaining about the little alarm. Meanwhile, I love it. I love the fact that the car lets me know when my passengers have not buckled up (I'm a big stickler for seat belts), and it's also fun to watch Katie's reaction to the seat belt alarm.

Unless you live in Arizona, the United States changes its clocks twice a year - once in the beginning of April and once at the end of October, going onto and off of daylight savings. Okay. Routine. Now, however, with this new energy bill that got passed, it's the middle of March that we go onto daylight savings, and early November (I believe) that we go back to standard time. As a result, it just seems awfully early to be changing over to daylight savings, partly because it is.

Usually this is so routine. We change the clocks and I'm like, okay. And life goes on. But due to the earlier date, I'm running myself ragged on it. I'm fairly confident that my computers will change on their own, and I'm also confident that my cell phone will change on its own. I've already changed my alarm clock. Still, I've been obsessing over this, worried that somehow I'll have forgotten to change something, and end up late for work tomorrow.

This, folks, is a partial explanation as to why I've found a few hairs coming in white as of late. I'm running myself silly over smaller issues.

Still, I feel I have a valid concern, but I also don't quite see the point of changing the dates that we change our clocks. I think we gained some three weeks and a whole lot of frustration. Of course, I'd also say that if our government is going to start engaging in "daylight savings creep", they should just save us the trouble and have daylight savings time year-round. That would be wonderful to never have to "spring forward" or "fall back" again. It's a pain in the butt to have to change everything. Think about Mom, who has fifteen bazillion clocks in the house, many of which make noise (to my dismay), and they all have to get reset.

Personally, I certainly could use that hour of light in the evening rather than in the morning, especially on the days when I go to Washington. Having more daylight when I'm actually in the area is more helpful than having it in the early morning during my ride up. After all, a majority of the drive on my DC trips is done in the dark as it is. I leave the house before sunrise (I usually clear Harrisonburg while it's still dark, and it's light out by the time I reach Mt. Jackson), and then the entire return trip is in the dark. But an extra hour of sunlight during the day means it's lighter out when I'm leaving the Infoshop (on those trips where it's part of the itinerary), and it means it's still light when I reach Alexandria.

So that's my two (or three or four) cents on the whole change of the time change. We'll ultimately make it through this just fine, but I'm stressing over it.

Beware the coffee, at least at first, at Daily Grind in Stuarts Draft. It's not often that I'll comment on coffee, but this is some hot stuff. It looks somewhat innocent at first:



But then when you take even a small sip of it, your mouth soon becomes a hot wasteland. I've never burned my mouth so far back before. That stuff is hotter than your typical home coffeemaker. It's hotter than Sheetz. It's also hotter than Starbucks. It's HOT. I took the lid off and gave it time to air out.

Don't get me wrong, though. I do enjoy their coffee. It's good as coffee goes. But don't take it fresh. Give it time to cool first before you dive in.

While I was at Daily Grind yesterday burning my mouth, I was listening to Neal Boortz on WTKS out of Savannah, Georgia via an Internet feed. Neal and a caller were discussing ANSWER Coalition (which as of late has become far less mainstream than it once was). The thing that got me a little riled up, though, was the fact they attributed the graffiti-ing of the Capitol on January 27 to ANSWER.

Why did this get me a little riled up, you might ask?

Well, first of all, what did ANSWER have to do with the January 27 march, and also, what did ANSWER have to do with the black bloc that was originally organized by SDS? The answer is nothing. ANSWER had nothing to do with J27, aside from a few banners out in the crowd. It was the anarchist contingent that put graffiti on the front of the Capitol. I should know. I was with them all day.

I have no problems with these radio talk shows criticizing these organizations, whether their target be ANSWER, UFPJ, DAWN, SDS, or otherwise. That's their right. I do, however, think that if people are going to criticize groups, that they should at least attribute actions to the correct groups. To do otherwise is just irresponsible.

I saw this on the front door when I went to Daily Grind today in Stuarts Draft. They're closing on March 31! Sad. Especially since I finally got into my groove over there and was starting to become a regular.

According to the sign on the door, they will be opening this summer to serve ice cream in the evenings, and then further along, they plan to open "The Cheese Shop Sandwich Shop", presumably a restaurant version of The Cheese Shop. For those of you who are not familiar, The Cheese Shop is a Mennonite-run store on Route 608 in Stuarts Draft with all kinds of meats, cheeses, and candies, both sugared and sugar-free. They sell all kinds of stuff, and it's almost all locally made. My mother buys from The Cheese Shop regularly. I'm told she's their first customer in the morning on Saturdays.

In the meantime, though, I'm going to have to find another place to have coffee and use the Lappy. There's another Daily Grind in Staunton and in Waynesboro, and I've been to the Waynesboro one before, but wasn't that excited about it. Not as close of an environment as in Stuarts Draft. The Staunton one is one I've not been to. I might have to check it out.

Of course, neither of those is as close as Stuarts Draft...

I seem to have been made the poster child of the anti-war movement on the blog of conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. And if what I've seen is the best that the right wing has to offer, I am not impressed.

And now we understand why the Republicans lost in November if this is how these people handle themselves. Here are a few gems for you...

From "jim": When Islam over runs this country it will be because of wussy boys like you.

From "Kelly Aasen": Go to the gym, read some real books (not the liberal trash you appear to be reading) and get the [expletive deleted] out of your parents house and on your own.

From "A Vet": Kindly don't come looking to desecrate the VN memorial. We had experience dealing with people in black previously and we won't take kindly to any attempts to leave any paint/marks on it. Otherwise have a nice day Sunday. PS: kindly don't date my daughter.

That last one was a real kick in the lily-bulbs, wasn't it? You can also tell, as we heard previously, that the right-wingers have been quite a bit up in arms over the graffiti. I just happened to be close by, and photographed the markings. I was shocked to see it myself. My first reaction was, "Do you smell spray paint?" Anyway, we continue...

From "Your Pal": You really should think about going out and getting laid.

From "Lance": My God I hope you're not for real, but just in case you might choose to look at this... (link to Michelle Malkin's site was provided)

From "Lt. John Davis": It will be interesting to see if you and your buddies attempt to vandalize any property and/or harrass veterans during the upcoming "protest". What I mean by interesting is the events/actions that will follow after you decide to commit such violent acts. See you there! Bring bail money! (was that a threat, lieutenant?)

From "Duane": You and your playmates are a hoot. Gonna hold your breath till you turn blue next? So mature, LOL. Loser.

I also love it when people post threats through my contact form. I have ALL their IP addresses now. Also, did you see anything missing from all this? Not one person who contacted me directly (including the ones I didn't quote) wanted to actually have an intellectual discussion with me. Not one. All they wanted to do was hurl insults.

I did read one comment posted on BunkoSquad about the Malkin incident that was positive, though. The owner of BunkoSquad was familiar with my work, and had this to say: Be safe, Ben. There may be a bounty on your head, and the Internet can't afford to lose you.

Still, notwithstanding BunkoSquad's comment, if this is the best that conservatives have to offer, then I am very proud to not count myself among their numbers.

It is 3:30 AM on Saturday, March 17, 2007 as I am writing this. And you know what that means, right? Yes, that's right - I'm going to Washington DC, and it must be something important if I'm going on a weekend and getting up so bloody early that the road's not even awake yet.

As you probably guessed, and as I hinted to in my previous Journal entry about the Malkinites, I'm going to the M17 demonstration today. Yep! Despite the snow that hit the area yesterday, I'm still going. Nature's going to have to do better than that to keep me away.

And I'm ready, too. The protest pack is already in the car, and Big Mavica's batteries are fully charged, plus I topped them off last night. All I have to do is get my two big bottles of water, and I'll do that on my Mt. Jackson stop.

One thing I wonder about for today regards the recent barrage of hate mail that I received from the Malkinites. I'll be interested to see if any of them actually show up, and recognize me out on the streets of Washington DC. After all, my picture was on Michelle Malkin's blog recently - the one where I was wearing the 3D glasses. At protests, as you may know, I don't wear my glasses, plus it is physically impossible to photoshop one's hair in real life (remind me to elaborate on that last point later).

So however it goes, it ought to be fun. There's going to be a photo set about it for Life and Times, and with this being an Infoshop trip along with everything else, I'll have an opportunity to write some initial thoughts about it in my Journal for your enjoyment.

First of all, hello from the Infoshop, where I just now met David Rovics.

The protest went swimmingly. I got off the Metro at Foggy Bottom, headed down to the main rally site, and eventually found the SDS contingent. After we determined what we wanted to do, we were off! This time, the black bloc stayed with the mainstream march (sponsored by ANSWER) for the most part. We formed a very tight affinity group, with arms locked the entire way. My right shoulder is now a bit sore due to that. We marched past the counter-protesters "guarding" the Lincoln Memorial (*eyes rolling*), and then marched over Memorial Bridge and on into Arlington. We eventually made a left turn, and headed towards the Pentagon. Our black bloc, after initially having to wedge itself into the mainstream march to get moving, mostly marched as its own unit to the side of the mainstream march, arms locked all the way. Did I say very tight affinity group?

At the Pentagon, we split from the mainstream march. The mainstream march went left, and down into the Pentagon's north parking lot (ho-hum). There, they had their rally, complete with speeches. Meanwhile, we continued on Route 27 for a little bit more, before we were physically stopped by Pentagon Police and the Virginia State Police. After briefly pushing against the line of police, a pyrotechnic device went off right in front of us (I was near the front of the march at this point), and we backed off. The police then started putting on gas masks, and a standoff began. The police were warning us to disperse, and many participants in the black bloc sat down in the street in front of them. The police gave warnings to disperse, they sat down. I backed off, and went to the back of it all, since I wasn't in the mood to get sprayed and/or arrested. Thus I ended up standing in the back, ready to run if it became necessary. A number of people from the SDS contingent determined that they were going to go back to the recruiting center in DC where the window had previously been broken, while others (including myself) decided to call it a day. Meanwhile, a very dedicated group of black bloc-ers remained at the Pentagon, continuing the standoff. I'm told that no pepper spray or tear gas was ever used (though they were prepared to use it), and that the group finally dispersed on its own when the State Police brought a large number of paddy wagons into position, prepared to make mass arrests (unlike DC, they can do that in Arlington).

Meanwhile, I headed over to Arlington Cemetery station, changed out of my protest regalia, and got on the Metro, and went back into DC trip mode. I also found out that all of my DC trips have paid off. I helped so many people at the protest from out of town find their way to the Arlington Cemetery Metro station.

You may be wondering about the title of this entry: "You were just on TV - Fox News". According to a friend of mine who text messaged me during the march (and who hasn't called me back yet), I was in a shot shown on Fox News. Well, fun stuff. If anyone happened to be recording Fox News during the protest when I was on, I'd love to see it. If anyone knows if I can download the video, I'd appreciate that, too. As the people I had locked arms with would tell you, I was in a bit of shock on that one for a while on the bridge once I checked my text messages and found out.

And then the counter-protesters were out in force, as I'd mentioned, "guarding" the Lincoln Memorial. Among others, there were a bunch of people dressed like bikers in that group. They looked and acted like thugs. Among others, one sign that caught many people's attention was one that had a peace sign and "sucks" on it, basically saying, "Peace sucks". Mmmmmmmmkaaaaaaaaay...

And meanwhile, I had no problems with any Malkinites. I really didn't expect to have any problems with them anyway. I figured that those folks were just a bunch of windbags, who put no action behind their talk. And I was right. They act all big and bad online, but I actually showed up in DC for M17. Due to the Malkinites, though, this protest garnered more interest than usual from my parents. They knew I was going before the Malkinites brought it to their attention, and they're supportive. But considering that the Malkinites were leaving threats in my inbox, they were a little more concerned than usual about making sure that I got back out in one piece. Dad texted me asking, "Are you alive?" I called later to fill everyone in on how it went.

And now? I'm at the Infoshop, and I've got the evening phase of my DC trip still to do. So I'm going to have fun. And then I'm going to wash my chucks when I get home, as they're quite muddy. Oh, and by the way, I'm going to do a full photo set on this later.

The first day back at work after a big protest is always a bit of a letdown. All that positive energy and excitement generated during the protest just kind of dissipates at work. I tell a few of my coworkers the story, and defend myself from the inevitable "so what did you really accomplish" questions.

And now I'm focusing on the follow-up work, where I consider my real activism to come out. The photo set. I'm not that great with public speaking or otherwise being put on the spot, though I do have my moments, like in a conversation about the Nationals and Metro service at A16, and my attempted discussion about the flag and the conservatives at J27. But then back here at my studio (read: my desk), that's where I like to think I shine. There, I discuss the issue and other things in the context of the march. I have a great time, too.

So, yeah, I'm working on my M17 photo set, which has the working title of "March on the Pentagon". I'm still in the very early stages of it, though, since I've not had much writing time on it at this point. I'm going to have to be clever with how I do mix photos and text this time, because I didn't get the maneuvering room I usually have at these things. I was essentially locked in a tight formation facing forward, and it affected how the photos came out.

Still, returning to work after a big, successful protest is always a bit of a letdown for me. It doesn't do that to me for smaller protests, but for the big ones, yes.

Believe it or not, it's true. Schumin Web completes its eleventh year of existence tomorrow, and so then the site will be eleven going on twelve.

As I say every year, I'm amazed to think about it. I look back at where we've been as a collective group (you, me, and the Web site), and I also try to look forward to where we're heading.

I also find it somewhat funny to think about how my life was way back in 1996 when I started this site. I was a freshman at Stuarts Draft High School. I wore no glasses, but I did wear a retainer. I had great hair that I didn't have to photoshop (remind me to elaborate on that later). I wore Airwalk sneakers. The Previa was running in tip-top condition as Mom's car, and I rode in it regularly - as a passenger. Greta was only two years old. Washington DC was a city that was far away, and I could count on my hands how many times I'd visited it. My computer was a 90 MHz Pentium with 16 MB of RAM and a 1 GB hard drive running Windows 95. Bill Clinton was in his first term as president. I had a mild crush on my first-year Spanish teacher. I was too uptight to discuss fire alarms with anyone, but instead held a silent interest. My Internet service provider was America Online. My bedroom had white walls. My watch was synchronized with the master clock in the school office so I would know exactly when the bell would ring. Netscape was considered the hip Web browser.

I also look at how the focus of this site has shifted over the years. Originally, it was strictly whatever. I would make a page for something, and I would write about it. No sections, no sorting. Just add it to the menu and go. I would regularly update a page called "News of the Week", which was basically about whatever was going on in my life. I would often grouse about school on there. The page was expendable, though - I kept no archive of what I wrote from week to week. Then later, we went to frames, which allowed me to keep the menu on screen all the time. I now consider frames to be a hideous concept, but back in the mid-1990s, they were the latest fad. They remained until September 1999.

I went through a few different titles for the site early on. From March to September 1996, I was "Ben Schumin's Home on the Internet". Then from September 1996 to September 1997, I called it "Ben Schumin's Internet Command Center". Then from September 1997 to July 1998, I called it "The Great American Road of Ben Schumin". Then from July to October 1998, I called the site "The User-Friendly World of Ben Schumin". In October 1998, I settled on "The Schumin Web", which seems to have staying power. The current logo arrived on scene in July 1999.

In 1998, I also revisited the "News of the Week" concept, though in a different way than before. Now, I placed it right on the front page, and titled the article with a quote - sometimes real, sometimes made up to fit the text. The original quote was "Open mouth, insert foot." Melissa Steele, a classmate in my 12th grade physics class, spoke it.

In 2000, I got my first Sony Mavica, and I began to create what eventually became known as "photo sets". There was originally no category for it. I had so few early on that they just sat in the one single menu for the site. Then later on in 2000, I introduced sections for the first time. The first sections were "Main Event", "Archives", "Major Areas", "Online Store", "Web Cam", and "Writings". Photo sets were originally lumped into "Main Event" (present-day Odds and Ends), before getting their own "Photo Essays" section.

I consider one of the greatest additions to this site to be my Journal, which basically replaced the quote, though the two ran side by side for a year and a half before the quote was discontinued. Now, I could write about anything from anywhere, and not be encumbered by a set format. My Journal is still a big free-for-all for me, and I love it.

Then beginning in the mid-2000's, my site has become increasingly political. In late 2002, I ran a set in Photography called Protesting Against the World Bank. On that particular DC trip, my main goal was to photograph the George Washington Masonic Memorial. I ended up finding out at Vienna that a protest was going on about the World Bank, an institution that up until then, I'd never heard of before. Looking back at this photo set, I had no clue what the hell I was doing. Of course, I had never been to a protest before. And nowadays, I don't consider this to be one I officially "covered", because I missed all the action. I just got some stuff on the edges without getting to the "meat" of it. I really got "into" things with my first real protest, which became A Protest Against the War. I still was very much a photographer on that one, and not a participant. Once protests moved to Life and Times, and I started offering more analysis and more commentary, did things really start getting political. And when I really started talking politics in the Journal did it seal the deal.

Like I've said before, I'm as amazed as anyone to see what the site has been through. And I'm always looking ahead...

First off, hello from Pentagon City. I've had a fun day today. I rode out to New Carrollton on the Metro and then around to Fort Totten and then to the Infoshop. And at times, I've been playing Scrabble Blast on my cell phone, like while I'm waiting on the train. I'm working my wordiness, keeping my mind in tip-top shape.

However, it's kind of strange about what words are valid words. I had tried "burqa" - the Muslim women's veil - and it rejected it! I would have scored 212 points on it, which would be a personal record, beating "mixed" for 170 points. This is the same game that accepts "booger" and "titties" as valid words (wipe that grin off your face!), while something far less juvenile gets rejected. It gets frustrating when it rejects perfectly valid words. Of course, it also rejects a number of "colorful" words that I've had the opportunity to give it.

But all in all, it's a really fun game. That and Tetris Mania.

Otherwise, I'm revamping my discussion forums, changing from YaBB to phpBB. The official cutover takes place Saturday night. I'm excited.

And when it was all said and done, my performance when it came to Metro on this last DC trip was horrible. Never before have I lost two all-day passes in the same day.

Now, I've had farecard problems before. On two DC trips some years ago (April 12, 2003 and January 3, 2004), and one recently (September 20, 2006), my day pass got demagnetized. In those cases, I got date coded, showed the pass to the station manager at every station, and went through the employee gate. In the two cases from a few years ago, it was caused by the farecard's living alone in an otherwise empty pocket. Therefore, it saw a bit more abuse than it should have. I switched pockets after that, and put the farecard against other things, which worked well for the most part. The other occasion, who knows what happened. It shouldn't have demagnetized.

Then on my November 21, 2006 DC trip, I lost my day pass at Pentagon City. I think it just fell out of my pocket when I pulled something else out. I ended up having to use my SmarTrip to get back to Vienna. I think I probably lost it at Champps in that instance.

This time, I lost my day pass twice! I lost it the first time at New Carrollton. I used the pass to leave New Carrollton, and that was the last I saw of it. I went to reenter the Metro at New Carrollton, and the pass was nowhere to be found. I even went back over to where I was earlier to look around a bit, since passes don't just disappear into thin air, after all. But it was gone. So I ultimately just got a new day pass and was done with it. So the first day pass saw two official "rides": Vienna to Rosslyn, and Rosslyn to New Carrollton. I rode four different trains during that time, but Metro only logs your entry and exit points, therefore the fact that I took a Blue Line train from Rosslyn to Stadium-Armory and then an Orange Line train from there to Cheverly (where we were offloaded), and another Orange to New Carrollton, doesn't play into the equation.

Then I lost the second pass after making four "rides": New Carrollton to Fort Totten, Fort Totten to Mt. Vernon Square, Mt. Vernon Square to King Street, and King Street to Pentagon City (though I actually rode five trains). I lost it at Pentagon City, likely somewhere in the mall. It must have been early in my time at Pentagon City that I lost it, because I realized it was missing at Starbucks at Pentagon Row, where I got my newspaper. As I currently run most of my DC trips, Pentagon City is my final place to go before returning to Vienna to go home. I get there around 7:30-8:00, and leave at 10:30. So it would have made no sense money-wise to purchase a third pass for one last "ride", from Pentagon City to Vienna. I just used my SmarTrip to get back to Vienna.

I made a few calculations to see how I did on fares. I spent more money on passes today than I would have spent if I'd just tapped my SmarTrip at every stop. Two day passes plus the run from Pentagon City to Vienna cost me $15.35. But if I'd just tapped my SmarTrip from the start, it would have only cost me $14.75. So I spent sixty cents more in fare using the passes. However, if I'd not replaced my pass at New Carrollton and just used SmarTrip the rest of the day, it would have cost me $16.55. In other words, assuming all other things are equal (same entries and exits made), it would have cost me $1.20 more to go that route. So it seems I did the right thing considering the circumstances.

Of course, the fundamental issue is this: How the hell did I manage to lose two passes in one day?!? That's the million-dollar question. And the other thing I want to know is, how can we prevent a recurrence? I think I need to get something a little more substantial to put the farecard in than just going straight in - something I can feel in my pocket. As it stands, I can't feel the farecard. It sits right against other things, and it is so thin that I can't feel its presence with the other things in my pocket. I ought to go get one of those holders for DASH passes from Tristan next time I go down there. That would be sufficient for me to know it's there by feel, and also protect the pass from damage.

Still I don't understand it. I make a lot of these trips, and this is the first time I've ever done that badly on keeping up with my passes...

As many who ride the Metro can attest, the eastern part of the Red Line has a lot of graffiti visible from the train. Besides the large "Bush Hates Borf" message near the Takoma station, there's also a whole bunch of graffiti nearer to the ground. A lot of it is on walls in CSX's right of way, and then there's some on nearby buildings, and so on.

But I noticed a whole bunch of new tags when I rode up to Fort Totten yesterday on the Red Line. They are anti-war graffiti tags. Here's an example of one near Brookland-CUA station:



I actually saw a bunch of these along the Red Line with similar messages. I don't necessarily agree with the method used to get the message out - that being tagging - but the sentiment is definitely a good one.

Meanwhile, on an unrelated topic, on the way home from DC, at the Sheetz in Haymarket, I found that one of the MTO ordering screens had crashed. Check it out:



It's not a blue screen of death, but the program has definitely crashed nonetheless. Thankfully, the lady at Sheetz let me grab a few shots of it before she rebooted the machine.

And meanwhile, the whole thing with the day pass losses that I described earlier demonstrates a very good reason to put passes on SmarTrip as soon as possible. With SmarTrip, I don't even have to pull it out - I just tap my whole wallet on the target on the faregate and I'm done with it. That's just all there is to it. Easy and convenient. Compare to the passes, which are paper, and therefore get wrinkled, demagnetized, torn, etc. And the passes must come out and be run through the faregate with the possibility of jamming (which has happened to me before), compared to SmarTrip, which just has to be tapped to the target. No moving parts, no having to pull anything out. If only WMATA would hurry up and do that...